Ultraviolet observations of astronomical sources

The final report on 'Ultraviolet Observations of Astronomical Sources,' which ran for a total of three years, roughly between 1 July 1988 and 14 Feb. 1993 is presented. During the first year, I worked at Indiana University; since October, 1989, I have been at Tennessee State University. This grant has supported my studies of archival International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) observations of zeta Aur binaries, cool stars that are paired with hot stars in binary systems. Such systems are important as a source of detailed knowledge about the structures of chromospheres and winds in cool giant and supergiant stars, since the hot star serves as a probe of many lines of sight through the cool supergiant star's outer atmosphere. By determining the physical conditions along many such lines of sight, a detailed two-dimensional map of the chromosphere and wind may be constructed. The grant grew out of my analysis of archival IUE observations of 31 Cyg in which I analyzed five epochs of an atmospheric eclipse that occurred in 1982. I fit the attenuation spectra of atmospheric eclipse throughout the ultraviolet (lambda(lambda)1175-1950 and lambda(lambda)2500-3100) with theoretically calculated spectra, thereby determining the physical properties of gas (mass column density of absorbers, temperature, and velocity spread) along each observed line of sight. A similar analysis for other such zeta Aur binaries was accomplished and theoretical models for the chromospheres of these stars based on my observations were constructed

Spurious Eccentricities of Distorted Binary Components

I discuss the effect of physical distortion on the velocities of close binary components and how we may use the resulting distortion of velocity curves to constrain some properties of binary systems, such as inclination and mass ratio. Precise new velocities for 5 Cet convincingly detect these distortions with their theoretically predicted phase dependence. We can even use such distortions of velocity curves to test Lucy's theory of convective gravity darkening. The observed distortions for TT Hya and 5 Cet require the contact components of those systems to be gravity darkened, probably somewhat more than predicted by Lucy's theory but clearly not as much as expected for a radiative star. These results imply there is no credible evidence for eccentric orbits in binaries with contact components. I also present some speculative analyses of the observed properties of a binary encased in a non-rotating common envelope, if such an object could actually exist, and discuss how the limb darkening of some recently calculated model atmospheres for giant stars may bias my resuts for velocity-curve distortions, as well as other results from a wide range of analyses of binary stars.Comment: 14 pp, 2 tables, 12 fig; under review by Ap

Orbits and Pulsations of the Classical ζ Aurigae Binaries

We have derived new orbits for ζ Aur, 32 Cyg, and 31 Cyg with observations from the Tennessee State University (TSU) Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope, and used them to identify nonorbital velocities of the cool supergiant components of these systems. We measure periods in those deviations, identify unexpected long-period changes in the radial velocities, and place upper limits on the rotation of these stars. These radial-velocity variations are not obviously consistent with radial pulsation theory, given what we know about the masses and sizes of the components. Our concurrent photometry detected the nonradial pulsations driven by tides (ellipsoidal variation) in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, at a level and phasing roughly consistent with simple theory to first order, although they seem to require moderately large gravity darkening. However, the K component of 32 Cyg must be considerably bigger than expected, or have larger gravity darkening than ζ Aur, to fit its amplitude. However, again there is precious little evidence for the normal radial pulsation of cool stars in our photometry. Hα shows some evidence for chromospheric heating by the B component in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, and the three stars show among them a meager ~2-3 outbursts in their winds of the sort seen occasionally in cool supergiants. We point out two fundamental questions in the interpretation of these stars: (1) whether it is appropriate to model the surface brightness as gravity darkening and (2) whether much of the nonorbital velocity structure may actually represent changes in the convective flows in the stars\u27 atmospheres

Random Spots on Chromospherically Active Stars

We have investigated the effect of large numbers of moderately sized spots placed randomly on a differentially rotating star as the explanation of the rotational light curves of magnetically active cool stars. This hypothesis produces light variation very similar to observed light curves of RS CVn binaries, provided there are of order 10-40 spots at any time and provided individual spots have a finite lifetime

SPOT on RS CVn From Spectroscopy and Photometry

We have used contemporaneous spectra and V light curves to form spot models for RS CVn in 1991 and 1992. More than two spots are needed to fit all the properties of the observations. In fact, moderately small spots (22 x 28 deg in latitude and longitude) having only a slight effect on the rotational light curve were eclipsed in both years, and we find that a collection of 6-8 such moderate spots is required to fit the line profiles in each year. These groups of spots also account naturally for a difference in level of light between the two years. There is no evidence for polar spots larger than 18 degrees in radius. We have also derived new orbits from radial velocities of the stars, which give the mass ratio Mc/Mh = 1.04 +/-0.02

Chromospherically Active Stars. XXI. The Giant, Single-lined Binaries HD 89546 And HD 113816

We have obtained spectroscopy and photometry of the chromospherically active, single-lined spectroscopic binaries HD 89546 and HD 113816. HD 89546 has a circular orbit with a period of 21.3596 days. Its primary has a spectral type of G9 III and is somewhat metal-poor with [Fe/H]~-0.5. HD 113816 has an orbit with a period of 23.6546 and a low eccentricity of 0.022. Its mass function is extremely small, 0.0007 Msolar, consistent with a very low inclination. The primary is a slightly metal-poor K2 III. A decade or more of photometric monitoring with an automatic telescope demonstrates that both systems display brightness variations due to rotational modulation of the visibility of photospheric star spots, as well as light-curve changes resulting from the redistribution of star spots by differential rotation and long-term changes in the filling factor of the spots. We determined rotation periods for each season when the observations were numerous enough. Our mean rotation periods of 21.3 and 24.1 days for HD 89546 and HD 113816, respectively, confirm that the giants in each system are synchronously rotating. The orbital elements and properties of the giant components of these two systems, including levels of surface magnetic activity, are quite similar. However, the two rotational inclinations are rather different, 57° for HD 89546 and 13° for HD 113816. Thus the latter giant is seen nearly pole on. We analyzed the light curves for similarities and differences that result from viewing these two systems from quite different inclinations

On the Period and Light Curve of the A-Type W UMa binary GSC 3208 1986

We present a new period study and light-curve solutions for the A-Type W UMa binary GSC 3208-1986. Contrary to a previous claim by R.G. Samec et al. of a rapidly decreasing period, the system's period is increasing moderately on a timescale of 2x 10^6 years. The light curve is variable on the time scale of years, which can be understood by changes in how much it overfills its Roche lobe

Starspots and relativity: Applied Doppler imaging for the Gravity Probe B mission

We present Doppler images and surface differential rotation measurements for the primary of the RS CVn binary IM Pegasi, the guide star for the Gravity Probe B experiment. The data used is a subset of that taken during optical support of the mission and was obtained almost nightly over a near three year period from the Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope operated by Tennessee State University. Using the technique of least-squares deconvolution to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the data, we have reconstructed 31 maximum entropy Doppler images of the star. The images show that the spot features are relatively stable for over a year (and possibly longer) with both a polar spot and lower latitude features. The most intense features are located on the side facing the secondary. In addition, we have incorporated a solar-like differential rotation law into the imaging process to determine the level of surface differential rotation for IM Peg for 22 epochs. A weighted least-squares average of the measurements gives a surface shear of 0.0142 ± 0.0007 rad/d, meaning that the equator takes ∼440 ± 20 days to lap the poles. Although the level of surface differential rotation was shown to vary over the period of the observations, this may indicate an underestimate in the errors of the method rather than any temporal evolution in the differential rotation